Hospitality and Tourism Students and Staff Visit Missions of Charity Home

They say charity begins at home. And what better way to share Christian love than by spending...

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They say charity begins at home. And what better way to share Christian love than by spending time with our brothers at Missions of Charity on a Saturday afternoon?

Missions of Charity is an organisation that welcomes the abandoned, physically and mentally handicapped within the country. They have 3 branches; Huruma, for the infants and children, Langata for the adolescent girls and women and Ruaraka (Gumba) for the adolescent boys and men. They live by the mantra 'poorest of the poor' which means that they need only the basics to be comfortable. Something we should all try to emulate.

The Centre for Tourism and Hospitality (CTH) students and staff organized a heartwarming visit to the Mission of Charity Home in Gumba. Everyone was ready and excited for this corporate social responsibility. On that Saturday mid-morning (19th September 2015), we all gathered up in small groups and helped in bringing all the foodstuff, clothing and necessities to one central place. Most of us were Second Year Hospitality students and a few staff members although the contributions came from the CTH fraternity as a whole.

We took off later than we expected, but better late than never folks! On reaching the narrow road to Mission of Charity Home, some of us started panicking because we did not know what to expect or how to react especially because we did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings or make them feel different.

We were welcomed by the Sister in charge and she was also very happy to see us. Mission of Charity Home is under the Catholic Sisters of Mother Teresa. They are really humble from the way they speak and live their lives. We were informed that most of the men were abandoned after birth and the Sisters took them in. She has workers who help with the cleaning, cooking and taking care of them. The home has a kitchen where they prepare all the meals, they also have dormitories that were well maintained and cleaned, talk about hospitality! The dining room was also well kept and as we walked around we learnt that some of them couldn't sit down so they spent their day in bed along the hallway and were later taken back to their beds in the evening. We met a young bright gentleman who wasn't able to speak but he went to school like any other teenager. He had an exemplary performance in school, and was quite cheeky.

We later insisted on helping with the chores: we swept the compound, cleaned the walls in the dormitory, folded clothes and helped in the kitchen to prepare the vegetables. Once we were done with the simple chores, we all gathered for a debriefing before leaving. Sister informed us that the gentlemen love chapatis, toys and just plain, old company. So, if anyone would like to assist in any way, those three are a quick tip.

All of us had something to learn from our visit we got to appreciate life and be contented with what we have.

We would like to thank The Missions of Charity Home for welcoming us, Strathmore University for providing a bus and the bus driver, CTH for organizing the visit, our lecturers for accompanying us and lastly, all the students who made donations and/or attended the visit. Till next time.